


A Tuesday Visit

by fieldingfreja (copperheadpony)



Series: SSO Wild West AU [2]
Category: Star Stable
Genre: SSO Wild West AU, Wild West
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 07:56:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13876539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperheadpony/pseuds/fieldingfreja
Summary: Roo gets a visitor looking for some guns with a different payment method then the usual





	A Tuesday Visit

**Author's Note:**

> a little more on Roo and her dealings with Kembell and a nosey Willow

Roo pushed her sweaty fringe out of her face with a sigh. The forge is hot as hell, typical for a Tuesday. The ringing of hammers signaled Conrad and Jamie were still working on the frame order for a wagon that had rusted partially. Roo glanced at the finished rifle lying on her workbench and reached over to one of the shelves to grab some finish to polish the stock before she rode it out to the general store to mail it out. It was a special design, she’d carved flowers, pine trees, and inlaid golden horses into the stock. Vines curled around the forearm and stretched towards the barrel.

It had taken her just a week, but it had been a week of late nights and riding out with Logan to hunt down the best wood for the rifle. It was more of a decoration piece for hanging over a fireplace, but she would be damned if it didn’t fire, and fire well.

A bell rang out, and Roo’s head shot up. A customer. She straightened her apron and pulled her sleeves down from where they had been rolled up on her arms. Conrad still hadn’t installed that mirror for her, and she hoped her face wasn’t completely smeared with soot.

“Good morning, how can I...” Roo trailed off as she stepped out of the back. Her eyes hardened, and she glared at the tycoon in front of her. “Mr. Kembell, how can we assist you?” She put a hand on her hip, close to the pistol resting in its holster.

Kembell raised an eyebrow at her and stepped farther into the shop. “Well, Ms. Archfield, I hear you are the best gunsmith in all of New Jorvik,” He drawled, feigning interest in some of the tools hung up on the wall.

“And whatsit to you?” She scoffed, following him with her eyes. Kembell turned to her with a grin.

“It’s been said you will do business with anyone, and most blacksmiths will turn me away when I ask,” Kembell walked towards her, and leaned a hand beside her head. “I need an order of rifles for my men, something like those.” He pointed to one of her more ornate rifle and pistol combos above the doorway.

“How many do you need, sir,” Roo gritted her teeth. She didn’t mind doing jobs for people who fell on the opposite side of the law, but Kembell always made her skin crawl.

“40, in a week.” He leaned forward, and Roo could smell the expensive cigars on his breath.

“I’m sorry sir, that won’t be possible. Rifles like that take a week at most to get that level of detail.”

Kembell’s face changed colors, and he glared at her. “I need these guns as soon as possible.”

“I can have 20 by the end of a fortnight if I get a little incentive,” Roo ducked under his arm and reached for her pad to take the order down. She wrote a small note in the corner to take Logan to the river and bathe herself as soon as possible after talking with Kembell.

“I thought you would say that” Kembell drawled, and gestured. A man, one of Kembell’s goons, came scrambling in with a crate. He placed it at Roo’s feet and scampered back. Roo glanced down, and then back to Kembell, suspicious. He rolled his eyes. “It’s not poisoned, why would I poison a supplier.”

Roo reached back for a crowbar and pried up the lid. The crate was absolutely full of different liquors. Whiskey, scotch, beer, and a whole row and clear liquid. She looked back to him. A sick grin was on Kembell’s face.

“I hope this is enough,” He said, stepping forward and leaning in close again. “I will see you in a fortnight for half of the order, we will discuss payment at a, later date with the rest of this shipment.” Kembell grinned at her and stepped out of the shop. “Have a lovely day, madam!”

The sound of a coach rumbling away shook Roo out of her shock, and she signed, running a hand through her sweaty hair.

“Roo?” She looked up to see Jamie staring at her. Roo frowned and bent down to pick up the crate. “Everything alright?” He stepped back as Roo pushed past him into her side of the workplace.

“Peachy,” She griped, dropping the crate by her bag. She banged around, looking for the plans for the rifles that she’d stashed in her bag and the right metal.

“You know, you have to stop this someday, you can’t keep taking liquor for payment.” Jamie said, and Roo let out a harsh sigh.

“I’m getting paid, this is to make me work faster.” She grumbled.

“And you’ll be turning into the town drunk soon,” He countered, and Roo fixed him with a glare.

“I don’t care, I will do my work, and get it done to get paid. That’s it.” She turned back to her plans and pulled out another pad. “I need to get started on getting the supplies for this”.

Roo more of felt than heard Jamie leave, and the ringing of hammers started up again. She leaned back and finished her list of supplies before stuffing the sheet of paper into her pocket. Roo pulled off her apron and hung it on the hook. She grabbed the order rifle, and wrapped it in leather.

Logan whinnied as she walked out to the little paddock Conrad had put up for the horses. Roo smiled at her horse and rubbed his nose.

“Ready to go bud?” He nudged her, and she smiled. Roo stepped over to her tack which was resting on the fence. She swung the saddle over his back and fastened the cinch. Logan easily took the bit, and Roo slid the new rifle in the holster hanging off the side of the saddle. Her horse danced as she swung up into the saddle, and then, the two of them were off.

Conrad’s forge wasn’t as far away from town, but it was still a good ride. Conrad had put his forge closer to the river for easier access to water to cool the iron and steel they worked with, and also in case the forge caught fire. Thankfully, homesteaders lived close by so they were never quite alone, but it was more secluded then living in the center of town.

Roo tapped her hat at the Dews, young Maya waving to her as she passed. Logan whinnied a hello to the horses working, who called back a reply. Roo chuckled, patting her horse on the neck. “Such a flirt” She muttered, and Logan nickered back to her.

Before she knew it, she was in town. She rode past The Calico, the sound of music drifting into the dusty streets below. Roo knew what went on in there, but refused to enter without a good reason, which usually is delivering pistols to Madam Miranda. Making pistols for Madam Miranda was always her favorite, she always asked for such delicate and pretty designs, and those were the guns that she spent the most time on, she would never hand Miranda a gun half made.

She reined Logan to a stop in front of the general store and swung off. Logan ambled away, towards the little paddock beside the sheriff’s office where a stable hand had just thrown a new bale of hay into the rack.

The bell above the door jingled as Roo pushed the door open. The mixed smells of sugars, candy and old things wafted towards her, and she smiled. Willow leaned from her chair in the back storeroom and smiled at her.

“Mornin Roo!”

“Mornin Willow, how’s business?” Roo called as Willow closed the back room.

“Same as always, what can I do for ya this mornin?” Willow leaned on the counter. Roo put the rifle on the counter.

“Need to ship this out to a customer in the Harvest Counties on the other side of New Jorvik.” Roo rummaged around in her pocket, searching for the slip of paper with the customer's address. The receipt from Kembell tumbled out of her pocket, and Willow’s eyes narrowed on the slip.

“Who’s that one from?” She hung over the counter and snatched it up before Roo could. Roo groaned.

“Stop being nosy Willow,” The brunette ignored her, eyes running across the paper faster than a tumbleweed across the desert.

“40 guns for Kembell? That’s a huge order for you Roo,” Willow handed it back, and Roo slid the address to her. Willow turned around to grab the correct postage and a large box. Roo sighed and grabbed a peppermint stick from the jar.

“I know, I told him I’d had 20 in a fortnight.” She popped the stick in her mouth, savoring the minty taste.

“But don’t you have the Clydesdales to shoe, and the Moorland’s herds?” Willow shot back. Roo groaned and dropped her head on the counter.

“Jamie or Conrad can cover those, I’m the only one in the forge who makes the quality guns Kembell wants.” She whined around the peppermint stick.

Willow made a tsking noise. “But Thomas prefers your shoeing then anyone else. Besides, 20 guns in a fortnight, how much liquor did he offer you?” Roo stayed silent, and Willow whipped around and put her hands on her hips. “How much Roo?!”

Roo sighed and lifted her head. “A whole crate of whiskey and vodka.” She mumbled. Willow let out a long sigh and turned back to tying up the rifle in the box. She scratched the address onto the brown parchment paper, before pushing it to the pile of other post going out on the stagecoach.

“Roo, you have to admit you have a problem, you won’t be making enough money if people keep bribing you with vodka and whiskey!” Roo rolled her head to pin a glare on the shopkeeper.

“I make enough money, its fine. Besides, you just reminded me I need to go shoe horses.” She stood up and ran a hand through her red hair. “Let me know how much it is once the stagecoach comes.” Willow waved a hand, already turning back to her storeroom.

“Don’t worry about it. We can call it even if you can shoe Koda for me on Friday” Roo smiled.

“See you then!” Roo stepped out back into the warm sun and pulled her hat back on. Logan was by the paddock, munching on the pile of hay she knew she’d seen him eyeing earlier. Roo giggled as her horse picked his head up and hay was sticking out of his mane. She picked out the stray pieces and stroked his nose.

“Ready for another ride boy?” He nudged her side and she giggled again. He reached out for another grab as she swung up. She directed him towards Steve’s farm.

* * *

It took her an hour to shoe Steve’s four working horses, and a fifth had lost a shoe so she and Steve had spent the better part of another hour to find the lost shoe in the fields. Then another 20 minutes to reattach it, clean up, and then she fixed a gate latch while she was there. Steve was one of her favorite customers, and he had been one of her first, so she never minded helping out where he needed it.

By the time she made it back to the forge, the sun was already going down, and she was almost falling off Logan. She turned Logan out with Conrad’s, the forge mule, and Jamie’s stallion. She tossed the three horses an extra flake and snuck some sugar cubes to the three before finally making it back into the forge. Jamie was still bent over his bench, fixing one of his inventions, and Conrad was reading the newspaper in his chair.

“You’re back,” Conrad called out, not even looking up from his newspaper. Roo slid her bag of tools on her bench, and started putting them away.

“Yep, dropped the rifle off at the general store to be shipped out, shoed Steve’s horses, fixed one of his gate latches and then came back.” Conrad raised an eyebrow and folded his paper.

“And where did the large crate of liquor under your bench come from?” Roo froze.

“Um, a client. I think I’ll turn in early.” Roo grabbed her share of bread, her notebook, and the crate before scampering up the stairs to her small attic apartment. She closed the door with a long sigh and slid the crate next to the others. She reached into the new crate and grabbed the bottle of vodka. Roo crossed the room and lit the lantern by her bed. She fell onto the bed and reached for her book. She ripped the cork out with her teeth and took a swig. She grinned at the sharp taste and snuggled in deeper to her pillows.

“I love vodka”


End file.
